談山神社

7.27.2011

Lotus flower in Nara

The lotus flower are in full bloom now at Kikoji-temple in Nara city. There are many kind of lotus.

Lotus came over from the Asian Continent to Japan in old days.
It has much to do with Buddhism. Lotus bear from muddy water and bloom clean,beautiful flowers. It symbolize wisdom and mercy of Buddha.
Lotus flower reminds me of a story for children of Japan. Lotus flower, mercy and wisdom of Buddha appear in the story.

The story begins like this " One day Buddha was walking around a lotus pond in heaven. All lotus flowers are pure white and there is sweet fragrance from the golden heart of lotus flower around there. It's just in the morning in heaven now and Buddha looked down from among lotus leaves in that pond. There is bottom of hell just far below lotus pond of heaven. So you can see clearly hell through the pond water like crystal.

Let me continue this story.
Buddha sees Kandata, who is so villain. He is struggling in hell with a lot of villains.
He has done only one good thing though he is a villain. He has helped life of a spider long ago. Remembering it, Buddha decides to get him heaven and hung a thread from heaven to hell in the far below.
Kandata starts to climb up the thread hardly. Keeping climbing the thread for long time, he looked down below accidentally. A large number of villains are climbing up the thread, following him.

He freezed because he thought the thread will be broken by weight of a large number of villains.
So he shouted at those followers loudly "This thread is for only me. Get down! Get down!"

Right after the shouting, the thread snaped at just a little upper part of his grip.
He and all villains fell down into the dark hell far below.
While here in heaven which is fragrant with lotus flowers.

Yes, this story is well-known " The thread" written by Akutagawa Ryunosuke.

47 stone image of Buddha are following lotus. Some kind of Buddha are engraved on stones

Here in Nara, many lotus flowers color World Heritage Site.

Lotus leaves shed raindrops well. Raindrops roll on lotus leaves as you know and fall down with dirt of leaves. So lotus leaves always clean though they are planted in muddy pond. This effect of self-cleaning is applied to the newest technique that guard roof or walls of buildings from dirt adhesion, according to a paper.

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.Don't feel sick looking at this photo.The eclosion of cicada.

It came out of below the earth on the next night after typhoon hit Japan. It's good the eclosion was not took place on the night of typhoon.

Splitting shell's back, it started to come out from the upper half of the body.

I found it at the stairs build by cement in our garden not trees at night.
Cicada live for 3or 17 years . This is longer life among insects. But cicada live only short period after coming out of below the earth. So it recalls sense of mortality to people in Japan before. Cicada representative of pathos.
While in China, cicada is symbol of revival, I heard.

After coming out all the body, it grabs the shell with its forelegs to stretch wings.

It took about 30 minutes from the upper picture to the bottom picture. And the next morning it had already flown away ,leaving the shell and it must be the one of them that are singing loudly in our garden now.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Secretly:Mizutani small shrine among deep forest in Nara Park. Lotus Flowers are blooming near here,too.

Hello:We were met by him at Mizutani small shrine. They are hosts of the forest in Nara Park.

21 件のコメント:

What beautiful shots of lotus flowers! They really look like heavenly flowers.By the way, what do you think would've happened if Kandata didn't shout other sinners after him to get down. The result was the same or different?

The document of cicada's eclosion is interesting. You were lucky enough to encounter such moments.Thank you for your great photo series, sarah. Really beautiful.

Wow, close-up photos are so powerful thanks to 300 mm zooming. You seem to have gotten used to your new camera.

The center of lotus flowers is very unique with seed pod which looks like bee's nest (蜂の巣）, that's why a lotus was called "hachisu" in old Japanese. "Hachisu" became "hasu", as you may know already.

The emergence of a cicada didn't make me sick at all, on the contrary, it moved me. You must have risen early that day as I hear the cicada emerges early in the morning. The newly-emerged cicada is so lovely with its translucent wings and impressive, expressive eyes. This is a scoop. Thank you, sarah.

Oh, gigantic lotus flowers!I happened to listen to the story"Hana(nose)by the same author this week on the radio, though I didn't think the both were cildren's stories, despite of their simplicity and shortness, and I read them in my childhood.

As for cicada, it was good for it to have succeeded to shed its skinand could extend its wings that look still soft

Sarah, Thanks for coming by my blog. What a great post, and your lotus flowers are sensational-beautiful macro shots. We have lots of cicadas around here too. They are very noisy in the evening with their chirping. Have a nice week. Mickie :)

Hello Sarah!Beautiful lotus flowers,the petals look like fine silk......the colours in the second photo are amazing,in fact the centre resembles the sweets in Tomoko's last post!I also love the image of the Buddha stones guarding the plants.The emerging cicada is very special,thanks for sharing this moment.

I hope the result was different though this story is for children.And not to destroy Buddha's merciful image for children. But I think that's one of thema of this story that it's not easy to correct nature of human.Thank you for comment.Have a good weekend!

Cicada had started at the first step of stairs. Too low and dark. Please imagine how hard to take a shot, taking a flashright. His taking off was too slow. I can't wait I went to there every ten minutes.Thank you for comment.

To Stardust,

I took them by wide-angle lens not 300mm. I took tea field by 300mm. I don't know reason detail .I took the cicada about at 10PM, not early morning.They do eclosion during secure time. So they may do it early morning,too.When I saw it first, it looked like an alien.Thank you for comment.

I like Hana,The thread,Toshisyun etc to read in my childdays. Maybe,Toshisyun was in a textbook of elementary school. An unexpected twist in its tail was my favorite.I have seen cicada's eclosion before its wings were white.So it depend on its kind, I wonder?Thank you for comment!

To Mickie,

Thank you for visiting and nice comment.Cicadas are chirping noisy, especially large brown cicada.I prefer tsukutsukuboshi cicada to others. Because they chirps " Summer will be over soon".Thank you. Sarah

To Ruby,

Thank you for visiting and nice comment. The center of lotus flower is very unique. Its filament looks like golden thread. I didn't know about lotus flower well before taking photo. They are very beautiful.Thank you. Sarah

I almost get sick of that creepy thing, heheYour lotus is so wonderful and so are your shots. Lovely macro that first one. Great color and fresh. We do not have them here. Would love to visit your world some day:-)

Thank you so much for all your nice comment on my blog, I appreciate it.

Beautiful pics, I love the Lotus flower!! Its the national flower of my country India...It is also associated with Hinduism besides Buddhism... Loved the story of Gautam Buddha, I have visited Sarnath where He have His first sermon...Have a fabulous week ahead Sarah:)

Sarah, your Lotus photos are stunning! I feel like I could reach out and touch them...and I love the Thread story. I really enjoy your Blog; your tell your stories so beautifully, and your photography is amazing.

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自己紹介

I'm a Japanese woman, was raised in Osaka. Now I live in Nara Which is an ancient city of Japan. Practicing English is one of my hobbies, even though my English is not that good but still I'd like to continue learning English.